What’s wrong with America in 2010, start with 1940?
What’s wrong with America in 2010, start with 1940?
America, the once spectacular land of the free and home of the brave, finds herself in a predicament. In an effort to make every citizens “pursuit of happiness” a reality, she lost her way.
Generations Ago
America in the last twenty years, starting roughly around the late 80’s, decided times were simply too tough. Coming out of the 1970s with revolutions around the world, embargos, oil shortages, domestic issues, wars and general global conflict America entered the 1980’s hoping for something better, that wasn’t to happen quickly. Entering the eighties America found herself in dire need of drive and revenue.
The seventies brought social programs at home and wars beyond our borders. America was brought down a notch globally when a couple of college kids helped by a few hundred radicals took over an American embassy, something that had been unthinkable in the past. And the following failed rescue attempts and hostage holdouts with a limp and weak Commander and Chief, simply highlighted this changing of the guard. America was lacking guidance.
Russia and the 80’s
When Ronald Reagan took office he was welcomed with general hope for something better. This came in a rough and tough form including drastically higher interest rates at home. Everything got more expensive and harder to come by. This however proved beneficial as it leveled the field and weeded out the lesser competitor from the stronger. “Survival of the fittest” underlined in bold. Gradually American financially became sound again and luckily, found a common enemy, the old guard of Russia. Always a thorn in America’s side since World War II, Russia once again proved to be the Reebok to America’s Nike. In every good competition there needs to be two sides, or the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’. Though depending what side your on, those titles may be reversed.
Russia, or more commonly known back then as the USSR, was a favored opponent for America. Why you might ask? Well the mystery of it all. Information to the general person on Russia was minimal other than “they’re bad” as, proclaimed by the US Government. And Russia was more than willing to play the part. For generations preceding it had been in a constant chess match with the United States. Look to the fall of Germany in World War II. Gen. Patton of the US Army was hardened against leaving Germany without plowing into Russia. Remember that Russia was a German ally up until Germany invaded it. Russia had no love for allied forces of Britain and the US, they were simply willing to ‘join’ to survive. Generals understood this Russian mentality, however politicians didn’t. So here you have the close of the nineteen forties with Russia dividing up Germany and standing its Communist ground. In the following four decades Russia would stand its ground. In the nineteen sixties we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, where Russia attempted to use Cuba as a forward operating base against the United States. While the US President at the time, Kennedy, attempted to take a public stand against Russia, secretive deals behind the scenes ended up weakening in the American approach in the world’s eye. But this was the sensible approach given that, at the time, Russia was easily on par with America militarily. Again had America headed Patton’s warning in the nineteen forties, Russia would have been insignificant. But remember, every competitor needs competition. Had Russia been isolated and removed from power, whom would America compete with?
The 1970’s, who knew
So into the nineteen seventies with Russia full bore on the eastern hemisphere and America trying to take a superpower stand on the worlds stage. At the start of the seventies America found itself in multiple wars. Vietnam, fall out from Korea and constant tensions with the Chinese and Russians (not unlike today) all were bothersome. With the resignation of President Nixon and the universal movement of military dominance in the oval office the conflicts began to simmer instead of boil. And just when outside conflict seemed to be in reduction, internal turmoil was at its peak. For the first time since the eighteen sixties it looked like the United States could be on the verge of revolution. Pop culture and military discourse was providing ample fodder for the generations of the lost, or now referred to more lovingly as baby boomers.
Generations of ‘slackers’ with nothing productive to do aside from overall rebellion for the sake of rebellion became the first American generation to be used by conglomerates as ‘pawns’. You see when you take people with energy and no goal and provide them with a goal, you can achieve a great deal no matter how unfounded the principals of your position. This was a carryover of the late nineteen sixties, where pop culture had, for the first time, taken an enormous stronghold on policy and political motivations. When you throw in political corruption, military symbolism, and social-crisis with civil rights you have all the necessary ingredients for a vast shift in a country.
America was at a tipping point and just when it looked as though it would fall apart internally, an enemy raised its head. Again, having an enemy provides the glue necessary to keep a civilization together. The enemy was Iran, more so the revolution there in, provided the means to keep the United States together. When the American embassy in Iran was taken over and the revolution in Iran went full swing kicking out the American favorite, people of the United States once again could be focused. However, lead by President Carter there was a great deal of apprehension. So the seventies came to a close brining America together in a way, all be it misguided and miscalculated.
Capitalism runs amuck
Enter the nineteen eighties with Reagan at the helm. Following Carter, Reagan had no choice but to push for higher interest rates, while reducing taxes. Why reduce taxes? Because that spawns creation, and with tax cuts to the wealthier of citizens that nearly guaranteed increased business and thus, increased revenue for the government. The eighties were a rough decade and though America was pulled from the gauntlet of the seventies, many issues arose. Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Arms Race the United States lacked competition and took the sole seat as Super Power to the world. Though this sounds like a plus, it is inherently bad. Without an equal, America had to meet every challenge and take every blame. When things go wrong and you’re the big player at the table, you are to blame no matter whose fault it may be. America was on her own with no one to keep her in check. And this brought issues, both with individual drive and individual greed.
Capitalism went crooked in nineteen eighty-seven leading to nearly a Wall Street collapse. Big bankers got excited and private investors saw no ends to what they could buy and collect on. However, in October of 1987 those little dreams of fortune started to show there stitching. Oddly enough, this is the same time a movie came out, “Wall Street”, which highlighted the inherent flaws and in which Gordon Gekko coined the phrase “Greed is Good”. But the nineties were on their way and there was hope, for once, that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Operation Desert Storm and George Bush the First
The nineteen nineties, enter President George Bush the First. A former CIA director, George was on a mission to find America an enemy. And he did, in the form of a desert leader in a far away land. Under the guise of “helping Kuwait” Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield took flight. American united once again. For the first time in the history of warfare, War was on TV and was live. We had first hand footage of invasions and learned the meaning of the term “embedded reporting”. This is now a buzz phrase as you’ve undoubtedly seen in current wars. And America was going to shine. America got to utilize all the Cold War talent it had built up preparing for the war with the Soviets, which didn’t come. America had ‘stealth’ technology, Tomahawk missiles, Patriot missiles and a couple dozen other pieces of hardware no one had heard of. America dominated. The Stars and Stripes flew high and America won the battle, if not the war. Again, a common enemy unified America and with all the wartime spending, life was beginning to show a profit once again. But George the First made one fatal flaw in the land of live reporting and television twenty-four hours a day, he got quoted. The quote “read my lips, no new taxes” this was a critical and costly mistake. See, waging a war has three certainties: one being death of an enemy, two being casualties of war and three a bill. Somebody needs to get paid. When this bill came due the only way to pay it was to drive up the taxes that were limited in the late eighties. This drove up revenues as well as dissention.
America gives new meaning to interns and Cigars
Ah, William Jefferson Clinton or Bill Clinton for short. He lead the way to office after George the First proclaiming more personal achievement for America. This was relatively easy following a very successful military campaign, even though Bill had never served and in fact, ditched that little responsibility in the 60’s. America had a youthful leader again who harkened back to the bleeding heart beloved, Kennedy. In fact, the media circulated pictures of a young Bill Clinton meeting Kennedy. See, this is what America needed a President that looked good on film. This could replace the need for a common enemy, or so America thought. Clinton gave America a feeling that, you know what, you deserve a good life. Things should be fun and life should always be good, bad things are what happens when the government makes the wrong decisions. But just as Bill’s collective ball got rolling, Somalia more specifically Mogadishu broke out.
In October of 1993 Army Rangers and Special Forces were killed in an African Coastland city. America’s response, all but ignoring what had happened. America didn’t want a black eye and the new President didn’t want to bring a public spotlight to something that didn’t make the citizens feel good. This was the dawn of the “trophy period” where no matter how bad you are, you get a trophy. To follow shortly after, two embassies in Africa were bombed by Al-Qaeda (that name pops up with significance in the 2000’s) and America’s response again, was to ignore and this time to simply fire a few Tomahawk missiles to get her point across.
So now America was happy go lucky at home, with taxes going down and spirits up it seemed that the sky was the limit. Money was cheap; Alan Greenspan (then head of the FED) kept market rates low which made buying things and more so going into debt, a solid play because money was endless, or so it seemed. The real estate market was on fire and the dot com industry was igniting. But both of these groups would fall apart in the coming decade. America saw no limit to what she could buy and switched almost entirely, thanks to Government plans like NAFTA, to a service based instead of production based society. The idea here was interest, making money off money without providing a tangible artifact. America turned her back on the tried and true, one of which was having a militarily strong enemy and focused instead on internal prosperity at all costs. In the close of the nineteen nineties America was introduced to Monica Lewinsky, an intern of the administration. After some fun discussions in front of Congress and CSPAN, America came as close as it has since Nixon to Impeaching and removing a sitting President. Everyone immediately became a Constitutional scholar, discussing which branch and specifically which body handled impeachment. This was educational for the masses and the media. The media, ah, the media. Never since the Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm/Shield) had the media received such a role. Media correspondents tripped over themselves for headlines and the dawn of a new era approached. This era in which the media could play a larger role than any corporation or public vote now encompassed media in traditional form as well as the Internet.
George Bush the Second and what’s a Chad?
In two-thousand the dot com bubble had burst, Clinton had nearly been thrown out of office, money was still cheap, America still lacked an enemy and sat at the head of the global table. But a new leader was needed, running for the post were Al Gore (VP under Clinton) and George Bush (the second, his dad was the first, get familiar with the middle names Herbert and Walker then you’ll understand the term G dubbya). This election came down to one State, Florida governed by one man, Jebb Bush (George’s brother) and the term ‘hanging chad’ was coined. See apparently, or so Al Gore would have you believe, old people can’t see and get confused by words. Thus, when they voted for people, they didn’t really vote for people. This is a whole saga of media non-sense that would take literally documents to write out. At the close after recounts and finally a Supreme Court mandate, George Bush the Second took the helm. Al Gore wasn’t lost in the light. He went on to pretend to be an environmentalist. In fact he made a movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” which turned out to be anything but factual however it did win him a Noble Prize and started up the Marketing Campaign of “I’m not a doctor but I slept at a … last night”.
George the Second took office and less than a year in America had its first, on soil, terrorist/civilian loss of life since Pearl Harbor. September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda reintroduced herself with a vengeance, killing almost 3,000 people. You can look up Sep. 11 2001 on your own as there is infinite detail on this topic. Al-Qaeda took its place as America’s new enemy number one. And the military wheels were set in motion using the conventional tactics. But this was a new enemy and a new time. The media was out in force waiting to sway the feelings of the populace. At first, the media was on-board with strikes against Al-Qaeda, as oddly enough was most of the world. Remember, we just left the nineties with happy go lucky America not harming a fly, now America is attacked, for shame!
But as the war in “Afghanistan” spread into the war “on Iraq” the media began to falter. See, the war in Iraq was based on “WMD- weapons of mass destruction”. We all became familiar with the term “yellow cake Uranium”, though to this day we haven’t actually publically found any in Iraq. But that was the term used to get America off its can and go into Iraq. While Iraq was definitely not an ally of America and Iraq was the invading country America pushed out of Kuwait in the early nineties, Iraq never overtly attacked America. This was hard for the media to swallow and as days, months, years lingered on without WMD’s coming to the surface, the media grew weary. The dawn of the media took flight and newscasts like CNN and web sites began to turn the sentiment of the citizens in America. You see, when people read or hear something, they tend to lean towards it being factual without considering that it could be 90% propaganda.
By the dawn of two thousand and five George Bush the Second had been re-elected by America and the wars overseas were as heated as ever. America was booming, housing was through the roof, literally. Anything and everything was doubling in value from a 18,000 sqft mansion to a 900 sqft trailer, all were valuable. A new term, “McMansion” was coined. This described those pseudo-millionaire residences in urban or sub-urban areas. Generally speaking, homes around 4-5,000 sqft. The Government led the way in the housing move by utilizing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Lending institutional arms of the Government that had quotas. These quotas were a call back to the Clinton era of prosperity. The American Government believed that if it just hoped enough and bent the rules enough, everyone could be happy. The problem is when you lower a board one way, you raise it another. So cheap money, war and free-for-all debt ran rampant. Everyone was doing pretty much anything they wanted. And lost in this mix was a generation of kids. Kids born to parents who were interested in the all mighty dollar, the next big SUV, a plasma TV and one-upping their neighbor. In this, kids became friends and not responsibilities of a parent. Parents looked on society and schools to assist, however, these kids were people..right? You couldn’t push them around you weren’t their parent. So now you had a body, schools, that was in charge of regulating children but not given any of the means, in other terms a day-care for working moms and dads. But, America seemed fine with this, I mean, lives were good. Little Johnny might not have a real parental figure or guidance in right and wrong, but he had a Playstation II and MySpace. It takes a village right? Well what if the village is a bunch of 45 year old men pretending to be 14 year old girls? Issues arose in America.
Crash Boom goes the Market, the dawn of the Bailout
In the close of 2006 and early part of 2007 bad news was on the rise for America. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now seemed ‘contained’ and controllable, but the financial sector was just beginning to go into nuclear fall-out. See, during the rise of the 90’s and the cheap money available along with Government programs and Fannie and Freddie, people that couldn’t afford homes were buying them. In turn, financial sectors were turning a blind eye and packaging deals for these people to sell on an interest based market. This was a domino line waiting to fall. It began with the new phrase “sub-prime market”. Sub-prime is exactly what it sounds like, I give you something lower than I should. This seems wrong right from the jump doesn’t it? Don’t we remember the saying “if it seems too good to be true it probably is”? Apparently not and people were foaming at the mouth to jump in. Well the sub-prime mortgage market began to fall, and fall fast. This resulted suddenly in Wall Street investments going into default and financial arms scrambling for cash that was once so easy to obtain. The government created quite a mess for itself by attempting to socially engineer a society. Again, making the pursuit of happiness a born reality of completion, instead of pursuit.
George the Second and the Treasury Secretary decided the smart move was more, not less, government intervention. TARP was born, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which provided taxpayer money to cover debt of private institutions. The concept was if the Government could simply clear the books enough, everything would be happy again. Well, wrong, see the inherent flaw in that logic is the value of a currency that isn’t based on a gold standard. See, there is nothing backing the US dollar but credibility in the US financial market. This is like taking ten dollars from your right hand, putting it in your left and saying you have twenty dollars.
Bailouts did something far worse though; they made it OK for companies to make bad decisions and in turn for citizens to continue to look for handouts. So consider this, generations of kids without parental figures that are now in the early twenties and see the government bailing out anything or one who fails because of bad decisions. This does not bode well for the future.
In the close of 2008 a new leader was to be chosen. This leader would use the media for all it’s worth.
“Hope & Change”
Barack Obama, a black man from Hawaii, or Indonesia or Chicago, anyway somewhere shines in the political spotlight, beloved by the media and utilizing the Internet like never before. Obama took the helm of a nation which tremendous problems. Specifically, financial problems. Obama took what TARP had done, and magnified it 20 times over. For the first time in history, American purchased companies on the taxpayer’s behalf. General Motors and Bank of America now had huge stakes of ownership held by the Untied States. This began the verge of Socialism in the United States and a new term took hold “Tea Parties”.
Obama and more specifically Congress decided that what was right for American debt was to spend more and borrow more. In 2005 America owed nearly 8 trillion dollars, at the close of 2009 it owed nearly 15 trillion. That was unheard of and the US dollar became more and more devalued.
A line in the sand was drawn in the media as well, between “liberal” networks such as CNN and “conservative” networks such as FoxNews, each of these had various off shoots and internet versions. Obama, for the first time in history, backed a media outlet overtly. The outlet leaned left, and Obama’s staff routinely pointed out ‘issues’ with the right. Each group continued to point fingers throughout 2009, blaming each other for the problems of the nation and all the while instituting new terms like “czars” as leaders of Government offices or positions. America for the first time in twenty years finds herself looking with in. One side you have groups that believe more government involvement is best, on the other side you have those that think governments role is vastly too far expanded. As 2010 introduced itself you had a mortgage industry that seemed to have stopped its free-fall, an auto industry that seemed to have found some legs and a financial sector that stopped bleeding but questions, serious questions remained. What had all this spending and debt by the government actually purchased? Unemployment rates were double-digits and odd policies were attempting to come out of Washington like “Cap & Trade”, “Health Bills” and “Stimulus Packages” all of which cost billions of dollars that America does not have. At this point in time Americas debt to GDP was 84%. That is unheard of for America. In Americas past it could always look within to find a way out, but today the field is different. With Americas transition to a service instead of substance based workforce, a generation of youthful Americans that have been told they can’t fail and misguided leaders it will be a new road to carve for America.
America, the once spectacular land of the free and home of the brave, finds herself in a predicament. In an effort to make every citizens “pursuit of happiness” a reality, she lost her way.
Generations Ago
America in the last twenty years, starting roughly around the late 80’s, decided times were simply too tough. Coming out of the 1970s with revolutions around the world, embargos, oil shortages, domestic issues, wars and general global conflict America entered the 1980’s hoping for something better, that wasn’t to happen quickly. Entering the eighties America found herself in dire need of drive and revenue.
The seventies brought social programs at home and wars beyond our borders. America was brought down a notch globally when a couple of college kids helped by a few hundred radicals took over an American embassy, something that had been unthinkable in the past. And the following failed rescue attempts and hostage holdouts with a limp and weak Commander and Chief, simply highlighted this changing of the guard. America was lacking guidance.
Russia and the 80’s
When Ronald Reagan took office he was welcomed with general hope for something better. This came in a rough and tough form including drastically higher interest rates at home. Everything got more expensive and harder to come by. This however proved beneficial as it leveled the field and weeded out the lesser competitor from the stronger. “Survival of the fittest” underlined in bold. Gradually American financially became sound again and luckily, found a common enemy, the old guard of Russia. Always a thorn in America’s side since World War II, Russia once again proved to be the Reebok to America’s Nike. In every good competition there needs to be two sides, or the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’. Though depending what side your on, those titles may be reversed.
Russia, or more commonly known back then as the USSR, was a favored opponent for America. Why you might ask? Well the mystery of it all. Information to the general person on Russia was minimal other than “they’re bad” as, proclaimed by the US Government. And Russia was more than willing to play the part. For generations preceding it had been in a constant chess match with the United States. Look to the fall of Germany in World War II. Gen. Patton of the US Army was hardened against leaving Germany without plowing into Russia. Remember that Russia was a German ally up until Germany invaded it. Russia had no love for allied forces of Britain and the US, they were simply willing to ‘join’ to survive. Generals understood this Russian mentality, however politicians didn’t. So here you have the close of the nineteen forties with Russia dividing up Germany and standing its Communist ground. In the following four decades Russia would stand its ground. In the nineteen sixties we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, where Russia attempted to use Cuba as a forward operating base against the United States. While the US President at the time, Kennedy, attempted to take a public stand against Russia, secretive deals behind the scenes ended up weakening in the American approach in the world’s eye. But this was the sensible approach given that, at the time, Russia was easily on par with America militarily. Again had America headed Patton’s warning in the nineteen forties, Russia would have been insignificant. But remember, every competitor needs competition. Had Russia been isolated and removed from power, whom would America compete with?
The 1970’s, who knew
So into the nineteen seventies with Russia full bore on the eastern hemisphere and America trying to take a superpower stand on the worlds stage. At the start of the seventies America found itself in multiple wars. Vietnam, fall out from Korea and constant tensions with the Chinese and Russians (not unlike today) all were bothersome. With the resignation of President Nixon and the universal movement of military dominance in the oval office the conflicts began to simmer instead of boil. And just when outside conflict seemed to be in reduction, internal turmoil was at its peak. For the first time since the eighteen sixties it looked like the United States could be on the verge of revolution. Pop culture and military discourse was providing ample fodder for the generations of the lost, or now referred to more lovingly as baby boomers.
Generations of ‘slackers’ with nothing productive to do aside from overall rebellion for the sake of rebellion became the first American generation to be used by conglomerates as ‘pawns’. You see when you take people with energy and no goal and provide them with a goal, you can achieve a great deal no matter how unfounded the principals of your position. This was a carryover of the late nineteen sixties, where pop culture had, for the first time, taken an enormous stronghold on policy and political motivations. When you throw in political corruption, military symbolism, and social-crisis with civil rights you have all the necessary ingredients for a vast shift in a country.
America was at a tipping point and just when it looked as though it would fall apart internally, an enemy raised its head. Again, having an enemy provides the glue necessary to keep a civilization together. The enemy was Iran, more so the revolution there in, provided the means to keep the United States together. When the American embassy in Iran was taken over and the revolution in Iran went full swing kicking out the American favorite, people of the United States once again could be focused. However, lead by President Carter there was a great deal of apprehension. So the seventies came to a close brining America together in a way, all be it misguided and miscalculated.
Capitalism runs amuck
Enter the nineteen eighties with Reagan at the helm. Following Carter, Reagan had no choice but to push for higher interest rates, while reducing taxes. Why reduce taxes? Because that spawns creation, and with tax cuts to the wealthier of citizens that nearly guaranteed increased business and thus, increased revenue for the government. The eighties were a rough decade and though America was pulled from the gauntlet of the seventies, many issues arose. Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Arms Race the United States lacked competition and took the sole seat as Super Power to the world. Though this sounds like a plus, it is inherently bad. Without an equal, America had to meet every challenge and take every blame. When things go wrong and you’re the big player at the table, you are to blame no matter whose fault it may be. America was on her own with no one to keep her in check. And this brought issues, both with individual drive and individual greed.
Capitalism went crooked in nineteen eighty-seven leading to nearly a Wall Street collapse. Big bankers got excited and private investors saw no ends to what they could buy and collect on. However, in October of 1987 those little dreams of fortune started to show there stitching. Oddly enough, this is the same time a movie came out, “Wall Street”, which highlighted the inherent flaws and in which Gordon Gekko coined the phrase “Greed is Good”. But the nineties were on their way and there was hope, for once, that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Operation Desert Storm and George Bush the First
The nineteen nineties, enter President George Bush the First. A former CIA director, George was on a mission to find America an enemy. And he did, in the form of a desert leader in a far away land. Under the guise of “helping Kuwait” Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield took flight. American united once again. For the first time in the history of warfare, War was on TV and was live. We had first hand footage of invasions and learned the meaning of the term “embedded reporting”. This is now a buzz phrase as you’ve undoubtedly seen in current wars. And America was going to shine. America got to utilize all the Cold War talent it had built up preparing for the war with the Soviets, which didn’t come. America had ‘stealth’ technology, Tomahawk missiles, Patriot missiles and a couple dozen other pieces of hardware no one had heard of. America dominated. The Stars and Stripes flew high and America won the battle, if not the war. Again, a common enemy unified America and with all the wartime spending, life was beginning to show a profit once again. But George the First made one fatal flaw in the land of live reporting and television twenty-four hours a day, he got quoted. The quote “read my lips, no new taxes” this was a critical and costly mistake. See, waging a war has three certainties: one being death of an enemy, two being casualties of war and three a bill. Somebody needs to get paid. When this bill came due the only way to pay it was to drive up the taxes that were limited in the late eighties. This drove up revenues as well as dissention.
America gives new meaning to interns and Cigars
Ah, William Jefferson Clinton or Bill Clinton for short. He lead the way to office after George the First proclaiming more personal achievement for America. This was relatively easy following a very successful military campaign, even though Bill had never served and in fact, ditched that little responsibility in the 60’s. America had a youthful leader again who harkened back to the bleeding heart beloved, Kennedy. In fact, the media circulated pictures of a young Bill Clinton meeting Kennedy. See, this is what America needed a President that looked good on film. This could replace the need for a common enemy, or so America thought. Clinton gave America a feeling that, you know what, you deserve a good life. Things should be fun and life should always be good, bad things are what happens when the government makes the wrong decisions. But just as Bill’s collective ball got rolling, Somalia more specifically Mogadishu broke out.
In October of 1993 Army Rangers and Special Forces were killed in an African Coastland city. America’s response, all but ignoring what had happened. America didn’t want a black eye and the new President didn’t want to bring a public spotlight to something that didn’t make the citizens feel good. This was the dawn of the “trophy period” where no matter how bad you are, you get a trophy. To follow shortly after, two embassies in Africa were bombed by Al-Qaeda (that name pops up with significance in the 2000’s) and America’s response again, was to ignore and this time to simply fire a few Tomahawk missiles to get her point across.
So now America was happy go lucky at home, with taxes going down and spirits up it seemed that the sky was the limit. Money was cheap; Alan Greenspan (then head of the FED) kept market rates low which made buying things and more so going into debt, a solid play because money was endless, or so it seemed. The real estate market was on fire and the dot com industry was igniting. But both of these groups would fall apart in the coming decade. America saw no limit to what she could buy and switched almost entirely, thanks to Government plans like NAFTA, to a service based instead of production based society. The idea here was interest, making money off money without providing a tangible artifact. America turned her back on the tried and true, one of which was having a militarily strong enemy and focused instead on internal prosperity at all costs. In the close of the nineteen nineties America was introduced to Monica Lewinsky, an intern of the administration. After some fun discussions in front of Congress and CSPAN, America came as close as it has since Nixon to Impeaching and removing a sitting President. Everyone immediately became a Constitutional scholar, discussing which branch and specifically which body handled impeachment. This was educational for the masses and the media. The media, ah, the media. Never since the Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm/Shield) had the media received such a role. Media correspondents tripped over themselves for headlines and the dawn of a new era approached. This era in which the media could play a larger role than any corporation or public vote now encompassed media in traditional form as well as the Internet.
George Bush the Second and what’s a Chad?
In two-thousand the dot com bubble had burst, Clinton had nearly been thrown out of office, money was still cheap, America still lacked an enemy and sat at the head of the global table. But a new leader was needed, running for the post were Al Gore (VP under Clinton) and George Bush (the second, his dad was the first, get familiar with the middle names Herbert and Walker then you’ll understand the term G dubbya). This election came down to one State, Florida governed by one man, Jebb Bush (George’s brother) and the term ‘hanging chad’ was coined. See apparently, or so Al Gore would have you believe, old people can’t see and get confused by words. Thus, when they voted for people, they didn’t really vote for people. This is a whole saga of media non-sense that would take literally documents to write out. At the close after recounts and finally a Supreme Court mandate, George Bush the Second took the helm. Al Gore wasn’t lost in the light. He went on to pretend to be an environmentalist. In fact he made a movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” which turned out to be anything but factual however it did win him a Noble Prize and started up the Marketing Campaign of “I’m not a doctor but I slept at a … last night”.
George the Second took office and less than a year in America had its first, on soil, terrorist/civilian loss of life since Pearl Harbor. September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda reintroduced herself with a vengeance, killing almost 3,000 people. You can look up Sep. 11 2001 on your own as there is infinite detail on this topic. Al-Qaeda took its place as America’s new enemy number one. And the military wheels were set in motion using the conventional tactics. But this was a new enemy and a new time. The media was out in force waiting to sway the feelings of the populace. At first, the media was on-board with strikes against Al-Qaeda, as oddly enough was most of the world. Remember, we just left the nineties with happy go lucky America not harming a fly, now America is attacked, for shame!
But as the war in “Afghanistan” spread into the war “on Iraq” the media began to falter. See, the war in Iraq was based on “WMD- weapons of mass destruction”. We all became familiar with the term “yellow cake Uranium”, though to this day we haven’t actually publically found any in Iraq. But that was the term used to get America off its can and go into Iraq. While Iraq was definitely not an ally of America and Iraq was the invading country America pushed out of Kuwait in the early nineties, Iraq never overtly attacked America. This was hard for the media to swallow and as days, months, years lingered on without WMD’s coming to the surface, the media grew weary. The dawn of the media took flight and newscasts like CNN and web sites began to turn the sentiment of the citizens in America. You see, when people read or hear something, they tend to lean towards it being factual without considering that it could be 90% propaganda.
By the dawn of two thousand and five George Bush the Second had been re-elected by America and the wars overseas were as heated as ever. America was booming, housing was through the roof, literally. Anything and everything was doubling in value from a 18,000 sqft mansion to a 900 sqft trailer, all were valuable. A new term, “McMansion” was coined. This described those pseudo-millionaire residences in urban or sub-urban areas. Generally speaking, homes around 4-5,000 sqft. The Government led the way in the housing move by utilizing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Lending institutional arms of the Government that had quotas. These quotas were a call back to the Clinton era of prosperity. The American Government believed that if it just hoped enough and bent the rules enough, everyone could be happy. The problem is when you lower a board one way, you raise it another. So cheap money, war and free-for-all debt ran rampant. Everyone was doing pretty much anything they wanted. And lost in this mix was a generation of kids. Kids born to parents who were interested in the all mighty dollar, the next big SUV, a plasma TV and one-upping their neighbor. In this, kids became friends and not responsibilities of a parent. Parents looked on society and schools to assist, however, these kids were people..right? You couldn’t push them around you weren’t their parent. So now you had a body, schools, that was in charge of regulating children but not given any of the means, in other terms a day-care for working moms and dads. But, America seemed fine with this, I mean, lives were good. Little Johnny might not have a real parental figure or guidance in right and wrong, but he had a Playstation II and MySpace. It takes a village right? Well what if the village is a bunch of 45 year old men pretending to be 14 year old girls? Issues arose in America.
Crash Boom goes the Market, the dawn of the Bailout
In the close of 2006 and early part of 2007 bad news was on the rise for America. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now seemed ‘contained’ and controllable, but the financial sector was just beginning to go into nuclear fall-out. See, during the rise of the 90’s and the cheap money available along with Government programs and Fannie and Freddie, people that couldn’t afford homes were buying them. In turn, financial sectors were turning a blind eye and packaging deals for these people to sell on an interest based market. This was a domino line waiting to fall. It began with the new phrase “sub-prime market”. Sub-prime is exactly what it sounds like, I give you something lower than I should. This seems wrong right from the jump doesn’t it? Don’t we remember the saying “if it seems too good to be true it probably is”? Apparently not and people were foaming at the mouth to jump in. Well the sub-prime mortgage market began to fall, and fall fast. This resulted suddenly in Wall Street investments going into default and financial arms scrambling for cash that was once so easy to obtain. The government created quite a mess for itself by attempting to socially engineer a society. Again, making the pursuit of happiness a born reality of completion, instead of pursuit.
George the Second and the Treasury Secretary decided the smart move was more, not less, government intervention. TARP was born, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which provided taxpayer money to cover debt of private institutions. The concept was if the Government could simply clear the books enough, everything would be happy again. Well, wrong, see the inherent flaw in that logic is the value of a currency that isn’t based on a gold standard. See, there is nothing backing the US dollar but credibility in the US financial market. This is like taking ten dollars from your right hand, putting it in your left and saying you have twenty dollars.
Bailouts did something far worse though; they made it OK for companies to make bad decisions and in turn for citizens to continue to look for handouts. So consider this, generations of kids without parental figures that are now in the early twenties and see the government bailing out anything or one who fails because of bad decisions. This does not bode well for the future.
In the close of 2008 a new leader was to be chosen. This leader would use the media for all it’s worth.
“Hope & Change”
Barack Obama, a black man from Hawaii, or Indonesia or Chicago, anyway somewhere shines in the political spotlight, beloved by the media and utilizing the Internet like never before. Obama took the helm of a nation which tremendous problems. Specifically, financial problems. Obama took what TARP had done, and magnified it 20 times over. For the first time in history, American purchased companies on the taxpayer’s behalf. General Motors and Bank of America now had huge stakes of ownership held by the Untied States. This began the verge of Socialism in the United States and a new term took hold “Tea Parties”.
Obama and more specifically Congress decided that what was right for American debt was to spend more and borrow more. In 2005 America owed nearly 8 trillion dollars, at the close of 2009 it owed nearly 15 trillion. That was unheard of and the US dollar became more and more devalued.
A line in the sand was drawn in the media as well, between “liberal” networks such as CNN and “conservative” networks such as FoxNews, each of these had various off shoots and internet versions. Obama, for the first time in history, backed a media outlet overtly. The outlet leaned left, and Obama’s staff routinely pointed out ‘issues’ with the right. Each group continued to point fingers throughout 2009, blaming each other for the problems of the nation and all the while instituting new terms like “czars” as leaders of Government offices or positions. America for the first time in twenty years finds herself looking with in. One side you have groups that believe more government involvement is best, on the other side you have those that think governments role is vastly too far expanded. As 2010 introduced itself you had a mortgage industry that seemed to have stopped its free-fall, an auto industry that seemed to have found some legs and a financial sector that stopped bleeding but questions, serious questions remained. What had all this spending and debt by the government actually purchased? Unemployment rates were double-digits and odd policies were attempting to come out of Washington like “Cap & Trade”, “Health Bills” and “Stimulus Packages” all of which cost billions of dollars that America does not have. At this point in time Americas debt to GDP was 84%. That is unheard of for America. In Americas past it could always look within to find a way out, but today the field is different. With Americas transition to a service instead of substance based workforce, a generation of youthful Americans that have been told they can’t fail and misguided leaders it will be a new road to carve for America.
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